A friend of mine, Jack Kelly, whom I met at Leeds University while studying in the School of Computing, has taken it upon himself to join the crew of a tall ship, Windeward Bound, for a 6 month stretch. As a fellow sailor I was delighted to find that he has decided to write a blog about his experiences while on board and I’ve begun avidly following his updates. Jack, I wish you all the best for your travels on the high seas!

Today saw me return from my last sailing trip of the year before hanging up my oilies and hunkering down out of the cold for the winter. As luck would have it we couldn’t have had a better weekend for such a sail and despite the lower than preferred wind speeds we completed our overnight race to the French port of Cherbourg and returned to Gosport the following night in high spirits and with somewhat windswept and sun tanned faces!

I’ve included below a couple of choice photos I snapped when I got the chance. First up is the actual start of the race, dead centre of the picture you can just make out the starting box on the shoreline and of course the other boats in the fleet who have crossed the line or who are about to. The second is the sun drenched terrace bar in Cherbourg where the tired but satisfied race participants were conversing and enjoying a glass of Merlot (or three!)

Over the Easter bank holiday I took part in a race across the English Channel and back with a team of people from the Offshore Cruising Club. The weather was rough and I was sea sick on the first day of the race, but the second day and the pre and post race sail went fantastically and all in all I had a thoroughly enjoyable time.

The high winds offered us the chance to frequently exceed 10 knots and the clear skies made for tanned faces and superb star gazing at night. What better way to chase away those chained to a desk computer blues!

Thanks to Anne Warren for taking the above photos, two of which show me at the helm of Overlord, the boat owned by the OCC.

Over the weekend I made my way to the East Coast where our boat Burnaby is moored so that she could be “put to bed for the winter” so to speak. We washed down the decks to remove the damage birds had caused to it and then put on the large canvas covers which protect her from the winter frost. Hopefully we will be able to schedule many pleasurable sails for the new season when the covers must come off and we prepare her once more for sea.